Dog search comes up empty

Del Oro High School students recently asked themselves “Who let the dogs out?”
According to Dan Gayaldo, Del Oro principal, 12 canine cops and their law enforcement partners made a sweep of unoccupied areas of the campus last Thursday as a training exercise and as an attempt to sniff out illegal drugs.
The dogs showed special interest in six cars in the high school lots, where approximately 250 cars were parked, Gayaldo said. Students who owned the vehicles went out to their cars to open them and the vehicles were searched. The officers found nothing.
“We’re being proactive. We decided to do this periodically and the officers used it as a training session,” Gayaldo said.
Gayaldo wanted to assure people that the dogs were only allowed in areas where there were no students.
“The dogs didn’t sniff students,” he said.
Gayaldo said the exercise sends a message to students and reinforces the idea that “we don’t want that stuff on the campus or in our community.”
According to Sgt. John Weaver, Youth and Community Services Supervisor for Placer County Sheriff’s, the dogs are cross-trained for both patrol and narcotics. He said they are trained to sniff out marijuana, methamphetamines, cocaine, heroine and other narcotics.
He said numerous dogs had to show interest in the same vehicle before it was searched. He said the dogs showing interest means that at some point narcotics were in the car, whether on a person – driver or passenger, or in an item that was placed in the vehicle.